Empire by B. V. Larson

Author:B. V. Larson [Larson, B. V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1482652765
Amazon: B009MTMCDI
Published: 2012-10-10T05:58:47+00:00

-22-

After the glow of an uplifting speech fades, the reality of a huge workload always looms. Like a wedding ceremony, soaring oratory rarely bears much resemblance to what follows. I got my people working immediately. Fortunately, we had plenty of weaponry and battlesuits. We’d constructed somewhere around a half million of them for the Centaurs, expecting a huge ground battle against the Macros when we’d originally reconquered the lovely planets of Eden. With a few modifications, I was able to outfit every Star Force veteran and new recruit alike.

I was surprised to learn just how many of my reinforcements were new people. Apparently, they’d come from far and wide and begged to get into the transports. The civilian population had taken a hit due to Decker’s bloodthirsty attacks, however. They’d started out with over thirty thousand civies, and we still had something in the neighborhood of twenty thousand to take care of. I saw this as a mixed blessing. They were more than welcome to join us out here on the frontier, but they had to be cared for—and I just didn’t have the resources for that now.

Instead of landing them all on Eden-8, I ordered them to be transported and dropped off evenly among the three inner planets we’d claimed with the Centaurs’ blessings. The transports spent a lot of valuable time doing this population shuffle, but I didn’t see how I could play it any other way. Sarin and I spent some time discussing the issue. She wanted them to load up into their ships, while I’d wanted them planet-side.

“We can’t let them just die up here in space,” I said.

“They don’t have to die. They can be parked in orbit on the far side of various worlds. That way, they can run if danger comes their way.”

I shook my head in disagreement. “No. There is nowhere in this system to hide if the Macros roll in past our battle station and fire just one missile at every transport. They will be hunted down and destroyed. I want these people spread out on the ground. It’s far harder to dig a population out of bunkers in a planetary atmosphere. They’ll have cover and be dispersed.”

“It’s taking up too much time,” Sarin complained. “We need those transports full of combat marines to win this fight.”

“You brought them out here. I figured you would take more of an interest in their survival.”

“I am, sir,” she said. She stepped closer, and whispered her next words. I smelled her faint perfume, and enjoyed it. “Kyle,” she said, “if we don’t win this fight, they’re all dead anyway.”

I frowned. “Not if Crow wins. The worst they could expect would be transport back to Earth in chains.”

She shook her head. “No. You saw Decker. It won’t be any different when the next commander comes. They’re rebels. Earth never wants to hear from them again.”

I had a hard time believing life had become so cheap back on my homeworld. I guess that when you have billions, a few thousand seems less important.

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